Dunes, Sand Storm. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A sand storm sweeps across layered dunes.
Here I decided to offer a somewhat more subjective view of a sand dunes scene, photographed late in the day during a period of high winds and a sand storm. If you see this as a calm scene… imaging gale winds blowing across from left to right, carrying large volumes of airborne sand, and the distant views obscured by these clouds filling the atmosphere. It was a wild scene, and I was only able to photograph it for a short period of time.
I have long been intrigued by the question of what is “real” in photographs. Not only is the presentation of an objectively accurate rendering of the subject rarely the highest goal of a photograph, but it is virtually impossible for a photograph to do so. (I like to say, “All photographs lie.”) Some look to classic photography to support their belief that photographs must aspire to “realism”. However, if any mode of photography is amenable to subjective license, it is black and white photography! The ability to produce an expressively subjective image in black and white may be unsurpassed. In this photograph I “went there,” with an interpretation that aspires not to reproduce objective reality but one that hopes to evoke subjective truth.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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